Beyond Blue

If you contact Beyond Blue for mental health help, they SMS you a list of local medical clinics in your area. THAT'S ALL YOU GET! If you have further contact with them, they'll tell you that most GP's have little or no mental health experience. Then they just stop talking and you have to ask if they are still there. To finish with, they say they can give you a phone number to call when you're ready to commit suicide and also don't watch TV. Can you believe Beyond Blue get state and federal funding for that? It's just an organisation to create more public service jobs for more lazy public servants. They should all be ashamed of them selves, especially Gillard for stealing off the Commonwealth and the hard working tax payer. They are a hoax and a "no service" organisation. Don't make yourself feel worse by contacting Beyond Blue! I wish you all you suffers the very best in your search for help because you won't get any help from Beyond Blue. Cheers.

Friend has been fighting and dealing with mental health and suicide ideation for a long time, After a 3 hour wait time for beyond blue, 20 minutes of texting the person BLOCKED him from the chat when he was reaching out for help.

Felt worse after, greedy psychologist pushed their business and don't actually ask a question of have you thought of seeing a psychologist and not asking,have you thought of getting COUNSELLING which you can receive form a counsellor at a much cheaper rate and usually a much better service, Avoid beyond Blue at all costs

Bit useless, you need data to contact them and I was on hold for a long time. This review thing is stupid I have to right a lot of extra stuff to right a review.

They are uncaring, do not listen to you, interrupt you and demand personal information but do not provide real help. I was disappointed and felt worse after talking to them.

Honeslty! There is no advice given. I started off the conversation giving them a summary about how I feel and what I am going through. Then they changed the topic and asked "Are you going to self-harm now or consider suicide". I said yes then all they did was sent a link about how to deal with self-harming. Then without even listening to my response they cut off the chat. They didnt even bother to discuss my problems. It felt rushed. It felt like they don't even care and they just want their workshift to end or something. How on earth does this company get money?!

PTSD 8 week course. At week 2 they tell you things might get worse before they get better. They did get worse. By week 3 I was battling suicidal thoughts and I told them that. By week 4 they withdrew me from the course because they don't deal with suicidal thoughts. They could have just mailed me out a fresh length of rope.

Do not contact Beyond Blue expecting counselling, regardless of what their website says. Here's what happened when I followed the links to call a 'counsellor' -
* Immediately inundated with useless information about the organisation by an automated voice
* Sat on hold for 10 minutes
* 'Counselor' picked up and asked a bunch of demography questions which could only be of use to Beyond Blue, nothing to do with me and my problems
* Allowed me to cry down the phone and tell them the struggles I've been having and then, barely acknowledging my situation and the real issue I had called to seek support for, asked me what services I wanted referring to
* When I said 'I thought this was counselling' and 'If it's not counselling, this isn't what I need' the person ended the call

You will not receive mental health support by calling Beyond Blue. You might receive referrals to mental health services. That is what they offer, NOT mental health support. This is extremely dangerous for people who are in crisis and seeking immediate mental health support and assistance. Do not call Beyond Blue for this. Call Lifeline.

I HAD TO WAIT 14 HOURS FOR THIS STUPID CHAT TO BEGIN AND IT WAS PAINFUL AS I HAD MY KNIFE RIGHT NEXT TO ME WHEN I WANTED TO SEEK FROM A PROFFESSIONAL BUT THOSE DO NOT EXIST ON BEYOND USELESS BUT I HAD TO THREATHEN THIS GUY TO A FIGHT CAUSE HE WOULDN'T HELP AT ALL

They were condescending, rude gave me no help because apparently cause I've called before I'm not in need of help. Poor excuse for a service bet it's funded by the Andrew's govt.

I despar that the precious psychology/psychiatry health dollars are wasted on such mickey mouse self referrring and agrandising services. The so called counselling line is only a billboard to be shunted off to their monetised services. They do not counsel and abuse by using false diagnoses. Clearly poorly quailified, likely inhouse course. Bombastic and overbearing. Dangerous for anyone vulnerable. Plenty of false advertising re COVID support, the dedicated lines all lead to the one generic service. The government has wasted precious resources on this corporatised crap whilst emergency psychiatric services and wards fold. Privacy re recorded services a huge concern. BIg brother is leaching. If you donate to this service you are harming Australian society.

The first time I signed up to Beyond Blue, they were very lovely people, willing to help out and were understanding etc. But after the past few months, I've been struggling with unbearable loneliness, anxiety and depression and casually said I had days where I felt like throwing off a bridge (not that I would actually do it) and they moved my post to the suicide forum where nobody saw it. I got an email where they cut parts of my post saying "this line forces people to respond" and each post gets awaiting moderation for hours now before it's posted. Some of my posts have been blocked completely and I have no absolutely no idea why, as I never swore, recommended medication (which is against the rules apparently) or mentioned suicide. They claimed my most recent post went over the character limit (which it did not!) as I had to cut it carefully to fit the character limit and they still refused to post it without an explanation. Since rejoining their forum, I feel as though I am being unfairly targeted by the moderators when all I did was pour my heart out with the most recent post! Nobody is responding me. In a time where I am hurting the most, it has really made me feel worse to find out that nobody really cares. And I thought this was supposed to be a non-judgmental forum dedicated to mental health and people who need help... All I've been feeling is judged! And I'm feeling judged because I'm having my posts cut, edited, reworded and blocked. That really hurts.

This is just another public space that is unsafe for women who feel like they have nowhere to turn, and no one to turn to.

Unfortunately, places like this that can afford advertising and brand recognition are run with the Heavy-Hand of government influences, featuring ex PMs, and Doctors; just so a country can feel like it's providing a civil-service.

As someone in crisis with C-PTSD, who is constantly triggered by merely existing as a woman in this world, I found the site overwhelming and difficult to use when you just need a quick, private or anonymous chat with someone NOT over the phone.
Live-Chat isn't 24/7, and Forum Posts and Replies are heavily moderated - every request I made for help was denied, whereas the two where I offered support to others were "allowed."

The simple request of seeking resources specifically for women, on the online-chat (after a night of no sleep), were mind-boggling - why was a guy responding when I'd already filled out my needs as a woman? Is he a bot?
The attached image was his response.
As a victim of rape, I don't feel comfortable chatting with a guy/bot, and due to being edited and silenced every day of my life, I don't feel comfortable, nor mentally-quick enough to think to ask for a woman, or communicate effectively.

Not helpful as a counselling or referral service.
Not a safe space for women to have a voice or seek help.

I had to download the "TalkLife" app, again, which seems mostly for young people - but at least you can post anonymously; and the kids are kind.

What a terrible website! How unhelpful and frustrating not to mention betraying trust. You can't register (in the FAQ section it seems this is a major issue with most registration attempts not just mine) and any information offered is far from confidential. They call and report you to the very hospital or doctors that you say have been unhelpful and try to get you locked up in a mental ward for saying you are reaching out to them due to depression! I seriously can't believe it. God forbid should you want to talk to someone at beyond blue about your depression! The hospital wouldn't accept me because I am a lifelong sufferer of depression and they know me and my every mood and obviously I'm not depressed to the point of hospitalization. All I wanted was to join a discussion with the other people connecting on their website and after having trouble registering due to them not sending or resenting the confirmation email required to activate my registration, I emailed and asked them to resend it. And they try to have me locked up? Unbelievable! That website should be shut down for the safety of anybody feeling a little down and wanting to join a discussion or read members stories!
Don't go here!

If you survive the time it takes to talk to a consultant you'll then have to get past the generic questions palming you off to your local GP.